Democratic strategists are attempting to make House Republicans pay a political price for backing President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” Thursday, although GOP groups suggest that voters will reject their “fearmongering.”
House Majority Forward (HMF), the nonprofit arm of a House Democratic leadership-aligned super PAC, announced a series of ads Wednesday targeting 26 House Republicans in battleground districts for voting to reform Medicaid as part of the president’s landmark bill, which enacts more than $1.6 trillion in spending cuts over a ten-year period. The ad blitz, first reported by NOTUS, comes as House Republicans’ campaign arm is urging GOP lawmakers to tout the benefits of the House-passed bill and defend “common-sense reforms” to Medicaid, such as barring illegal migrants from receiving coverage under the program at the state level.
Despite Americans appearing to approve of key sections of the bill, Democrats are seeking to make GOP lawmakers suffer political consequences for allegedly cutting benefits, which Republicans have dubbed outright “fearmongering.”
“The ads —’Big Ugly Bill’ — highlight votes taken by House Republicans to raise grocery prices and cut health care in order to bankroll tax giveaways for the ultra-rich, urging constituents to call on their Members of Congress to stop the bill now,” a HMF release announcing the ad campaign geared toward top Republican targets said.
“[H]e just cast the deciding vote to raise the cost of your groceries and cut your health care, including Medicaid,” the HMF wrote in a post on X featuring an new ad attacking Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Rob Bresnahan for supporting the president’s domestic policy bill. “All to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-rich.”
A spokesperson for Bresnahan told NOTUS the first-term congressman is “proud to stand up for the hardworking people of Northeastern Pennsylvania, not to bankroll benefits for criminal illegal immigrants or able-bodied adults who refuse to work.”
“Unlike Washington Democrats, the American people overwhelmingly support common-sense reforms and Rob is proud to stand with them,” the spokesperson added.
“House Democrats just gave Republicans a generational opportunity to go on offense,” a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) memo published Thursday said. “Their unanimous vote against the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’, a landmark package delivering tax relief, government efficiency, and border enforcement, handed us the clearest contrast in years.”
The NRCC’s advice to House Republicans in battleground districts to proudly defend key portions of the bill appears to be backed up in recent polling showing a majority of voters approve of the legislation.
A poll released Saturday by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates found that a majority of voters in 72 “targeted” congressional districts favor myriad components of the president’s sweeping tax and spending package, including Republicans’ efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid.
More than seven in ten registered voters favor the implementation of Medicaid work requirements for certain able-bodied, childless adults, according to the poll. Roughly 70% of participants polled were also supportive of imposing more frequent eligibility checks for those enrolled in the program to ensure that illegal migrants and other ineligible groups are not receiving taxpayer-funded benefits.
Republican strategists are also touting the landmark bill for averting a roughly $4.5 trillion tax increase by extending the expiring provisions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, delivering on the president’s campaign promises to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime pay and investing more than $90 billion in border security.
Senate Democrats’ campaign arm also unveiled a 60-second digital ad Wednesday warning Senate Republicans about voting to preserve the Medicaid reforms in the House-passed bill.
Though Trump has given GOP senators the green light to alter the House product, it is currently unclear whether Senate Republicans will modify the proposed reforms to Medicaid.
Several moderate and populist-oriented GOP senators have come out against aggressive reforms to the entitlement program with Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley arguing Medicaid cuts are “morally wrong” and “politically suicidal.” Deficit-concerned Senate Republicans, conversely, are calling on the conference to approve deeper spending cuts in the president’s landmark bill, which could include additional reforms to Medicaid.
Congressional Republicans are seeking to send the tax and spending bill enacting a major portion of Trump’s legislative agenda to the president’s desk by July 4.
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